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Saturday, June 23, 2012

Lately I’ve been focused on photo updates and lost sight of
writing articles that are more than just captions. Today we’re going to switch it up and I’m
going to review the 2 major dark rides that recently opened in Southern
California, Disney California Adventure’s Radiator Springs Racers and Universal
Studios Hollywood’s Transformers: The Ride – 3D.

Radiator Springs
Racers

First up is Radiator Springs Racers, which opened last
Friday at Disney California Adventure (DCA). Cars Land is the final puzzle piece
to the DCA billion dollar overhaul, and Radiator Springs Racers is the star
attraction of the all-new land.

Upon arrival to the park around 7:20am I noticed the usually
busy Disneyland looked like a ghost town with almost no one trying to enter the
park. Across the esplanade, DCA had
hundreds, if not thousands, awaiting their chance to enter. It was very clear that Disneyland’s little
brother has finally been noticed by guests to the resort. The majority of the crowd opted to get
fastpasses before waiting in line, making it easy for me to sneak into a short
15 minute wait thanks to the single rider line.

The ride begins with a slow, but breathtaking, drive along
the land’s amazing rockwork and past a waterfall. Disney uses spectacular music to emphasis the
sites you see. It’s hard not to get
chills as you emerge from a small tunnel and the waterfall comes into view
while the great music reaches a crescendo.

Not only does the ride have great theming, but so does that queue.

Next you head into the building getting into a few near
misses with Mack, Van and Minny, and even a train. You’re greeted by the Sherriff, who warns you
to slow down, and then hands you off to Mater.
The Mater animatronics are some of the most impressive I’ve seen. Not only is the face motion spot on, but his
entire body movement as he drives looks just as it does in the films. After some cow tipping shenanigans you find
yourself in Radiator Springs where we meet most of the town folk.

Here is where Lightning and Sally separate the cars so they
can race along side of each other. You
are sent into either Ramon’s paint shop or Luigi’s tire store. Both rides I ended up in Luigi’s where you
stop and view your car. Guido quickly
drops under the floor and moments later your car’s reflection is shown with new
whitewall tires.

Moving from the shops you have a brief encounter with Doc
Hudson who gives you some advice and sends you to the starting line. Again, Disney works their magic as the
animatronic looks amazing and syncs perfect with the car audio. Just as you pass Doc you hear him on the
“radio” finishing his instructions before the race. The switch from the animatronic audio to the
onboard audio is seamless as if he never stopped talking.

And then the moment for the big race is here. Going into the ride knowing it only went at
a relatively slow 40mph, I was expecting to only be mildly thrilled. Surprisingly though, the ride has great
positive forces in the banks and even gives you some decent airtime over the
hills.

After the race is over you drive into a cavern with taillights
jutting from the roof and floor. This
scene was the only one I didn’t care for as the props looked like they were
made of plastic and didn’t blend well with the amazing rockwork. Here you get a final word from Mater and
Lightning and then you head into the station to exit.

Overall the ride is amazingly solid and a lot of fun. The dark ride portion is one of the best
Disney has ever done and the race is up there on the thrill scale for a Disney
ride. Radiator Springs Racers gets a
strong A grade from me. The ride is sure to be a must for all visitors for many,
many years to come, just expect to have to wait.

Transformers: The
Ride – 3D

Next up, Universal Studios Hollywood has put in its bid for
dark ride dominance in Southern California with the new Transformers: The Ride
– 3D. The ride, which was announced
nearly 3 years ago, opened officially on May 25th and has been
getting some outstanding reviews. I set
out on a mission the ride and judge for myself.

The entrance is not easy to miss.

Like Radiator Springs Racers, I was able to utilize the
ride’s single rider line and bypass the large 65 minute wait in a mere 10
minutes. I can’t say enough about single
rider lines, as they work sometimes better than a fastpass system for wait
times as long as you are ok separating from your group.

Once aboard I had a vague idea of what to expect. Prior to my visit, I made it a point to avoid
any POVs on YouTube and be fully surprised with the experience. I have ridden Curse of DarKastle at Busch
Gardens Williamsburg; so I thought I knew what the ride would be like, at least
from a movement standpoint going from screen to screen, but boy was I
wrong.

The ride is incredibly fast paced. It gets going from the first scene and never
lets up. Drawing from my memory of DarKastle
I recall always noticing when we got to a new movie screen, with Transformers
the surroundings and videos blended seamlessly.
There was a few times where I felt speechless at the quality of theming
and sheer size of the sets, only to realize that huge scene I was looking at
was all CGI projections on a screen. I’m
not sure I’ve ever experienced such visual quality from a projected film on an
amusement park attraction.

Like the park's Simpsons ride, Transformers has humorous and fun videos playing in the queue.

The ride’s story is easy to follow and exciting to watch
unfold, and just like Indiana Jones Adventure, the ride never forgets you are
simply tourist thrown into an extraordinary story. Your transforming ride vehicle, EVAC, even
talks you and tries to keep everyone calm as he tries to get everyone out of
harms way. I feel like this adds
something to the ride, making it easier on the riders to suspend
disbelief.

By the end of the ride, the cars return with laughing
cheering guests who are still riding the adrenaline rush. And this ride succeeds in getting your
adrenaline pumping, in fact I’m not sure a non-coaster has ever got my blood
pumping quite like this thing.

After my ride I thought about how I would describe this
attractions. It’s not an ok ride; shoot,
I can’t even describe it as a great ride.
The only two words I can really say are game changer. What this ride
says is that Universal will no longer back down in submission to Disney’s iron
grip on the Southern California market.
This ride doesn’t just say Universal can also build big themed dark
rides, it says they can build them better.
I will make one of the boldest statements I’ve probably ever said about
a ride; Transformers is the best amusement park attraction I have ever
experienced. My grade for it is an A++.

That will wrap us up this time. Check back later this week for a brief look
at Buena Vista Street before we bring you full coverage of the openings of LEX
LUTHOR: Drop of Doom and SUPERMAN Ultimate Flight.

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